Lovely Lemon Tree

I don’t think I’ve talked much about this over here, but back in May, I ordered a Meyer lemon tree and have been growing it in a pot!

North Georgia doesn’t really have the climate for growing lemons, because it gets too cold in winter, so my lemon tree is on a little rolly cart. When temperatures at night dropped to the 40’s, I wheeled my little lemon tree inside, and it’s going to live by the sunny window in the back door until things warm back up this spring.

My tree came with a few small lemons already on it, and they took so long to ripen that for a while I was worried that I’d accidentally bought a lime tree! Finally, though, the biggest lemon on my tree blushed yellow, and now they’re ready to harvest! I’m planning to use this recipe for Moroccan preserved Meyer lemons.

There are a few tricks to growing citrus indoors. Mostly, you need to make sure they get enough light and water. The other issue is that, since there are no bees inside of your house ideally, you’ll need to pollinate your plant yourself if it flowers. You can just use a little paintbrush to take the pollen from the top of each flower and dab it inside. That way, your tree will keep producing!

The other thing I learned is that a small tree like mine can get really bogged down with lemons. There was one branch that had 5 lemons on it! That’s way too many. In the photo above, you can see the extras that I pulled off laying in the pot. I can’t remember where I read it, but thinning out the lemons on your tree like this, so there are at most 3 in a cluster, can really help it produce more and stay healthy.

The lemon tree isn’t the only food I’m growing right now, and I’m planning to talk a bit more about my garden in this space! I’m no gardening pro – just learning as I go – and documenting how everything is doing will help keep me accountable.

Are you guys doing any gardening this fall? I’d love to hear what you’re growing!

I’d definitely fertilize! Maybe every 3 to 4 weeks? An organic 2-1-1 or 3-1-1 works well,and you can check the box instructions for frequency. you actually reminded me that I really need to fertilize mine!